Family photo albums

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Family photo albums

Students learn how the stories of families and the past can be communicated through photographs. In this activity they will examine photos from the State Library of NSW to find out what family life was like in the past, and compare family life in the past to family life in the present.

Key inquiry question #1:

What is my history and how do I know?

Key inquiry question #2:

What stories do other people tell about the past?

Key inquiry question #3:

How can stories of the past be told and shared?

Content summary

How the stories of families and the past can be communicated, for example through photographs, artefacts, books, oral histories, digital media, and museums (ACHHK004)

Students:

pose questions about another's object or photograph

discuss then and now; past and present

In this unit of work the term ‘Indigenous’ is used to refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Background notes for teachers

This activity is designed to introduce students to photos as historical records of people, places and events in the past. Students examine photos from the State Library of NSW to find out about what family life was like in the past. They compare family life in the past to family life in the present by considering that some things change over time and some things stay the same.

Discuss the following with your class:

Have you ever taken a photo of your family?
Cameras have been around for a long time. Before cameras people would paint or draw something they wanted to remember. Often it was a picture of their family. As cameras improved and became less expensive people took photos of their family, friends and pets. They wanted to have a memory of those they love. Photos taken long ago can tell us a lot about how people lived in the past. They show us what houses and gardens looked like. They show us the type of clothes people wore. Sometimes they show what people did on special occasions. Have you ever looked through an old family photo album? Who did you see? How different do they look in the photos?

Five photos show different families over time. Working in groups students examine these photos to identify people and describe their relationship to one another. Students also identify similarities and differences with their family.